John Lafayette Vaughan and Belle Starr

When I first got into genealogy in middle school, the first materials I was given were about my mother's family, the Vaughans. My great aunt Dale had materials she'd gotten from her cousin Colleen, her aunt Lou, and other relatives, and she brought copies for me to a family reunion at Robber's Cave State Park near Wilburton, Oklahoma. I still have all the original copies of those papers she gave me because they started my life-long obsession with genealogy on a great footing.

One of the items she gave me was an undated photocopy of a newspaper article about my great great grandfather John Lafayette Vaughan. It was called "Death of Belle Starr" recalled. A writer for the McAlester News-Capital named Baird Martin would comb through the paper's archives every so often looking for interesting articles to reprint. One of the articles Martin found was an interview given by Vaughan to a reported named Charles H. Cowles.

Martin pulled only a handful of quotes and gave a summary of the interview, but I always wanted to find the full, original interview. I eventually found out the reprinted article was from about 1968, but he never gave the date of the original article's publication, only stating that it was published some 35 years prior to his re-hashing of the article. McAlester's newspaper was never digitized for general public consumption, so I never had a way of finding the article short of requesting all the microfilm for roughly 1932-1934 and combing it day by day.

Recently I learned that the McAlester newspapers, including the News-Capital, had in fact been digitized, but most were only available on-site at the McAlester Library. You had to be logged into their Wi-Fi to access these archives. Fortunately, one of the librarians, Christopher Elliott, was kind enough to dig around enough in the papers from the early 1930s until he found what I needed.

The article was better than I could have ever dreamed it would be. The only negative was that the writer stopped his interview halfway through and said it was "to be continued" in a later edition...but he never continued it. His next article referenced a couple more stories from Vaughan, but did not pick up where the first interview left off with Vaughan discussing Judge Parker and the trial for Belle Starr's killer. Mr. Elliott could not find that second half of the interview, and when I finally connected to the McAlester Wi-Fi myself to search day-by-day in June of 1933 for it, I also could not find it.

I even had the inkling to contact descendants of Mr. Cowles to see if by chance his notes had survived in any capacity. I found that he died in prison in Detroit in 1941, but I don't know why he was sent to prison. Besides the McAlester News-Capital, he had worked for the Detroit Free Press before coming to Oklahoma and working for various newspapers. By 1940, he is enumerated in the Census for that year in prison; I am certain it is the same person because he gives his 1935 residence as "McAlister, OK". Genealogy websites indicate he did have 4 children, but I have not yet reached a descendant to find out if notes that might contain the second half of his interview with John Lafayette Vaughan might be around. It's a ridiculously long shot, but I want to leave no stone unturned.

But given the unlikelihood that the second half will be found, I am forced to be happy with the parts I do have. And believe me, I am thrilled about finally having his full interview after around 20 years of wishing for it. It gives explicit details about his connections to Belle Starr, her husband Sam, her daughter Pearl, her father-in-law Tom, and others and confirms a lot of the family legends about his connection to the Starr family. For a full biography of his very interesting life with over a dozen pictures of him, please see my recently updated blog post here: http://thesaltofamerica.blogspot.com/2012/08/john-lafayette-vaughan-belle-starr.html

Without further ado, here is my transcription of Vaughan's interviews. You'll note that the original article does not actually include his name as the source of the information, but a correction was published the next day proving he was indeed the interview's orator. I have made a handful of corrections/amendments for spelling and clarity which are indicated by brackets.

John Lafayette Vaughan as a young man in his late teens or early 20s, around the age he would have been during the events his discusses in this interview. 

McAlester News-Capital – 4 Jun 1933 – Page 8

County Pioneer Tells Interesting Story of Contacts with Territorial Days’ Outlaws

[Author not stated; should be Charles H. Cowles]

The worst desperado, the greatest man-killer that ever roamed the wilds of Oklahoma, was a giant, seven feet three inches in height, weighing 270 pounds and wearing No. 16 shoes. He could not buy shoes in the stores—had to have them made to order. This blood-thirsty fiend was Tom Starr. He never stole a horse or robbed a bank or [train]. He was a gambler and a very successful one. His home was the [Briartown] settlement where the town of Porum now stands.

“I lived on the place of Martin Crowder, an aged Indian, 40 miles northwest of McAlester on the Canadian river five miles from Tom Starr’s home, and this aged man became very friendly with me and told me what Tom Starr had imparted to him.

Tom Starr. Courtesy of The James Scrolls blog. 

Old Tom told him he had never killed many Choctaws, only 50, but he had killed an enormous number of Creeks, Seminoles, and other wild tribesmen. He said he never kept count of the number but that he had of the Choctaws.

I think Tom must have been born in the early ‘40’s [Note: Actually born about 1813] as he had a house full of grown boys when I first saw him.

He told my old friend, Martin Crowder, that he had been able to avoid suspicion through his ability to walk fast. He said he would go out early at night and kill someone that he did not like. Authorities would search the country for 40 miles around but by morning he was 75 or 80 miles away. He was half white and half Cherokee. I don’t know what white race he sprang from but I would venture to say he was Irish because of his great endurance. He could walk faster than a horse and was long-winded.

Tom Starr had quite a lot of land, and fine land, too. His son, Sam Starr, was the husband of the famous bandit queen, Belle Starr. His other sons were Frost, Tom, Tuxie, and Charley. Tom Stair, when I knew him, said he had never known but one honest white man. He said that man would gather corn and put it in three piles in the field and then call him and say, take your pile. He declared that was an honest man.

One time, Tom was in the heavy bottoms, playing cards, when his horse snorted. He told the 10 or 15 men with whom he was playing that the enemy was getting close and he was getting out. They made fun of him and he said: ‘All right, boys, I am going, and you can stay if you want to.’ He straddled his horse and let the steed choose the direction to go. He hadn’t gone 200 yards before officers, who were advancing, opened fire and they killed every last man except Tom Starr, who escaped.

Tom and another man became hungry one day and went to a house and asked for something to eat. Refused, Tom told his partner to watch the woman, who was alone with a baby, while he went to the kitchen. When he returned, he killed his partner, the woman, and the baby and left all the bodies on the porch. He told Martin Crowder he didn’t know what the people would think when they came home and found them all dead on the porch.

The name of Tom’s wife was Lucy. One time he was coming home and he crossed the farm of Bill Gibbens who was at work. He said: ‘Bill, I am going to see Lucy and the children and don’t you tell I am here or I will kill you, as sure as you are a white man.’ ‘I would not tell on you for anything, Uncle Tom,’ was the reply. But Tom did not tryst him. He slipped around between [Bill] and his house and waited. Not long afterward, he heard Bill coming on a little gray pony, tippity tip, tippity tap, and he stepped out, saying: ‘You know what I told you.’ Bill declared he was not going to tell, saying he had broken a singletree and was going for repairs. ‘You know what I told you,’ said Tom, and he made him get off the pony. He shot him and rolled his body off a bluff. Then he shot the pony and rolled it off the bluff, too.

For some time, Tom Starr was on the warpath, the objects of his hatred being the Cherokees. At the start, he would take a few men with him. He took a notion to kill the chief of the Cherokees. The chief was afraid of him and he took a guard of 50 men whenever he went to court. Tom Starr took his brother, Jim Starr, and a little fullblood, whose name I have forgotten, and slipped up on the court house. The little fullblood went to the door and the other two went around to a window and shot and killed the chief. The guards rushed out and began firing on the two brothers. There was a patch of two or three acres between the court house and the brush where they had hid their horses. They walked backwards, fighting all the time, towards the brush. Tom had a big shotgun and he had put a handful of blue whistlers in each barrel. One shot killed six guards. The guards poured the lead around them so that Jim Starr proposed they run and then declared he was going to run by himself. Tom told him he was saving a shot for him if he did run. They fought all the way and got to their horses and fled to safety.

The Cherokees waylaid Tom later on and fired into him, killing his horse. The animal fell on his leg, spraining Tom’s ankle. He managed to get from under. He could no run, so he crawled. Picking up a stone that weighed two or three pounds, he hurled it into the bushes with terrific power. The Indians thought it was Tom running, and went in that direction while Tom crawled farther away. Then he threw another rock or two to carry them on in another direction while he made his escape. The Indians offered to make a treaty with him but he would not quit, saying he would not trust them, but he said he would observe a treaty if it was signed by authorities of the United States government. The treaty was made and he settled down and lived peaceably.

One time after all this happened, I remember Jeff Serrett, an Indian officer in federal uniform, went to arrest Tom Starr. He told him it would be an impossibility to effect an arrest, saying he never had been arrested, and he never would be. He finally told him he would ride with him to the place where he was wanted but he would never consider himself under arrest.

When Uncle Tom was about to die, his boys gathered around his bed and he covered his face with his hands and said he did not want his boys to see him die; that he did not want them to think that a man as brave as he was had to die. I am satisfied that he was the greatest man killer Oklahoma ever had.

Belle Starr. Courtesy of Wikipedia. 

Belle Starr was born at Carthage, Mo., the daughter of a man named Shirley, a hotel man. She started out on her bandit career because federal army officers killed her twin brother, Ed Shirley. I always thought she named her son, Ed, in honor of her twin brother. She married a man named Reed, not Jim Reed, who is often referred to as her husband. Her husband was killed in Texas. Belle lay out in the woods with the body all night, and afterwards drifted to the Starr settlement and to the home of Tom Starr. After she and Sam Starr were married, they removed across the South Canadian river to Younger Bend. The only children Belle ever had were Ed Reed and Pearl Reed. At her death she did not look to be over 35. She was older than she looked. I lived there on the Crowder place and I heard the shot that killed Sam Starr. I was within a mile of the spot where he met death.

Frank West, who killed him, was a Cherokee officer. The Wests and the Starrs did not get along well together. The Wests were officers. They had a dance at Aunt Lucy Sterrett’s house, on Macharr creek, a mile west of Whitefield. [Note: John’s younger brother Stephen, who died in 1885, is buried at Whitefield.] West was living in the Briar settlement. Frank fixed up to go to the dance and his wife, a fine-looking, bright, yellow-haired Cherokee woman, said: ‘Don’t go, Frank. You know there is liable to be some shooting.’ Frank replied: ‘You don’t need to worry about me. I can shoot as fast as any man.’ He went on to the dance. There was a big fire out in the yard. Frank was standing near the fire and Sam Starr walked up, saying, ‘Frank, what did you shoot my horse for?’ At the same instant, he cut West’s [jugular] vein with a bullet. Before a person could blink an eye, West shot Sam Starr in the breast with a .45. As Frank West was falling, he saw Daniel Fulsom, a 14-year old Indian boy, running and, mistaking him for Sam Starr, put a bullet through his head. The bullet penetrated his jaw, coming out on the left cheek. Dan had been my playmate at times and I went to see him. He suffered terribly but he recovered and for four years was the best sheriff Haskell County ever had.

Sam Starr on left, John Lafayette Vaughan on right. Courtesy of Jerry White.

Frank West and Sam Starr were carried into the house and laid down together. There was a little jackleg doctor there; I forget his name. Frank West said to the doctor: ‘I am killed and Sam Starr done it.’ The doctor replied: ‘Well, Frank, you killed Sam.’ ‘How do you know?’ Frank asked. ‘He is dying now,’ said the doctor. ‘Oh, that’s all right then,’ said Frank, and he died peacefully.

Belle Starr, after this, fell in with another long-haired Cherokee Indian whose real name was Bill July but he called himself John Starr. I lived close by where they were living. Belle was a fine looking woman. There were no charges against her in the courts at that time. I went to her place lots of times and carried her and her daughter, Pearl, to dance. I carried Pearl to a good many. At one time, Belle made a contract with a man on my side of the river to come over there and clear some land and live on her place. They had some differences. Belle had such a bad name and Young Bend was a place to be shunned, so hardly anyone dared go in there. They asked for someone to go in and see her and try to effect a compromise. They wanted me to go and I said I would not care to go in by myself in a case like that but if Lige Fain would go with me, I would undertake it. Fain and I went and fixed u the trouble without any difficulty. Belle invited us to come back and go with her New Year’s night to Briartown and take in the Cherokee dance. That suited me all right, I did not want any trouble but was out just for fun. My partner, Fain, had a wife and could not go. I ran my saddle across the river in a skiff and walked about two miles up to Belle’s. Pearl and I caught a couple of horses and put them in a corral. When we went to get them, it was pretty dark—only starlight, and the horses were shy. John Starr (Bill July) roped five head and never missed a throw. Although it was night, he never failed to catch each one by the left front foot. Some roping, I say. Five of us—Lula Cobb, John Starr, Belle Starr, Charles Acton, and I—went to the dance. Pearl did not go.

Pearl Starr. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

When we were riding seven miles through the mountains, Belle said to me, knowing I was young and unsophisticated: ‘No man ever rides this trail but once.’ I think she just wanted to scare me. I replied, ‘Well, this trail doesn’t look very bad to me.’ It was fashionable then for everybody to wear a gun that wanted to. There was no law against it. A gun was nice and handy. There was lots of game. I liked to carry one. Belle said: ‘Let’s slip up on the porch, knock the door open and all go in at one time.’ We did. They looked pretty wild and shy when they saw who was in the party. I took the girl I had carried there and John Starr took Belle out on the floor and want to dancing. Later, when Belle was dancing with Ike Reynolds, a brown curly-headed fellow with a six-shooter, my partner and I walked out and the floor was full. Belle said to me: ‘Fate, you take this fellow’s place.’ My name is Lafayette and she called me Fate. I was afraid that would stir up trouble. I did not approve of it but they gave back and gave us the floor. The man that Belle pushed back, however, sat in the corner and kept growling, saying something about it might be all right one time, etc. I was told he had killed seven men. Belle dashed up to him and gave him a round of good cussing and said she did not mean to take his place—that he could dance with us. I looked for a shooting every minute but I had some with her and I had to stand hitched. John Starr presented himself with a fun mighty quick and it sure looked dangerous.

Belle Starr. Courtesy of Biography.com.

Someone stole give red double blankets, that cost $5 apiece, from our saddles. Charles Acton started a search and found them 200 yards from the house in a crack in the fence, brought them back and put them under our saddles. When we started home the second time, they were gone again and we had to ride without them. John Starr took a six-shooter and went in the house and told them he knew who stole the blankets and cussed around. They said if they ever did catch one of us to ourselves they’d sure wait on us. Belle told me like this: ‘I have quit all my meanness and I don’t intend to do any more dirt if I am left alone, but the old lion is still there, asleep.’ Things went on very peacefully, until Edgar Watson came into the picture. He was an out-law and his wife told the wife of Jack Roe, who lived two miles from Belle’s house, that he had killed seven men with the gun he had then. She said he would go and plot and leave the team in the field and kill someone he was mad at and return to his plowing, with never a suspicion.

Some horses were stolen somewhere by Edgar Watson, John Starr and Belle’s son, Edgar Reed. Officers crowded them and [John] Starr held them back with a large rifle while Edgar Watson and Ed Reed pushed the horses on. They got separated and Ed Reed wrote a letter to Watson. Jack Roe got the letter and Watson, being on his place, he carried it to the house and put it in a crack on the porch. Belle Starr came along, recognized the handwriting as that of her son and took the letter to the fire and opened it with a pencil, read it and sealed it and put it back. She said she did not want her boy stealing horses and that she was going to prosecute Watson for getting her boy into it. Jack Roe told Edgar Watson what Belle said and he exclaimed with an oath: ‘I’ll kill her!’

The afternoon she was killed, February 3, 1890, the folks where I lived heard the shot. I was in Brooken, eight miles away. She was killed about 2 o’clock. When I reached home, I heard about it, grabbed a bit to eat and got to the scene just after the crowd there had lifted her body into a wagon. It was getting dark. Pearl, her daughter, and Mr. and Mrs. Newt Pearson, neighbors, had stayed with the body all afternoon. They were just ready to drive away when I arrived. I saw her body washed and laid out. She had fallen into a mudhole when she was shot. She had as beautiful a smile as I ever saw her wear when she was alive. She looked natural as life. I was staying with Turner G. England at the time and he and Jack Roe followed the tracks from where she was killed to the fence, as I did afterward.

Belle sitting side-saddle on her horse. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Belle’s horse was hitched to Roe’s fence a short time before the murder and Roe’s folks saw Edgar Watson ride up close enough to see the horse and recognize it. Then he wheeled about and went back toward his farm. Everyone in that country heard the report of the fun. They said it was the most alarming gun ever heard in that bottom. He had a double-barreled muzzle loading shotgun. The road there comes up through the timber from the bottom. There was brush along the fence for quite a ways and there was an open place in the rail fence. Where the brush stopped there was a small walnut tree on the inside of the fence. That is where Watson hid. He let her pass him and then fired on her. I could see the place where she was shot as the horse stove his feet into the ground there. Three buckshot ranged from her shoulder to her heart. She stuck to the horse about 30 or 40 feet. Then there were the tracks. I could see where he had jumped the fence. She rode sideways all the time. I never saw her without a nice dress. She fell on her right shoulder and arm. There were the tracks where he ran up and shot her in the side of the face with a load of fine shot. She was not dead then, for she had raised her hand to protect her face. He shot the ring from her left ear and we never could find it.

We sat up with the body that night. In the morning, when it was good and light, I looked over the ground. There was shotgun paper all over the tracks of the horse where they stove in.

Bill July, Belle’s husband, was in Fort Smith that night and we sent to Eufaula and telegraphed. The Fort Smith elevator people said he left Fort Smith at daybreak, crossing Poteau river on a little brown horse, and had a quart of whiskey, headed for Younger Bend and swearing vengeance. I was there at his place and at 2 o’clock he rode up on a lope. He had covered the distance, at least 78 miles, between dawn and 2 p.m., and the horse didn’t weigh over 850 pounds. This was a wonderful horse. It belonged to Morris Craft and he got it from Mark [Kuykendall].

Judge Isaac Parker. Courtesy of https://sites.rootsweb.com/~oktttp/IT/history/parker/index.html

Belle’s mother came from Texas. She was a fine, intelligent appearing woman. Another man and I dug the grave, three feet, and then others came and helped finish it. She was buried in a nice wooden coffin and a walnut box to set it in. The lumber was taken from the house in which I lived. Edgar Watson had the nerve to attend the funeral and help throw dirt on the coffin. He went in the house and came out with a coat and I thought he had an ashen color to his face. I saw the arrest of Edgar Watson after the funeral. I thought they were going to shoot him. Judge Parker asked T. G. England why he didn’t track Edgar Watson to his house and his reply was a question: ‘If you tracked a lion to his den, would you go in on him?’ His opinion was that Watson was a dangerous man and he did not care to risk his life.

Cole Younger. Courtesy of True West Magazine.

Judge Parker telegraphed Cole Younger, who was serving time in the Minnesota penitentiary, and he declared she wasn’t his wife and that he had never been married. He said he might have seen Belle Starr but had no recollection of it. He was sure that he would have known of it if she had married his brother, Bruce Younger.”

(To Be Continued)

McAlester News-Capital – 5 Jun 1933 – Page 6

Name Omitted By Error

The pioneer, who was quoted in the News-Capital Sunday in regard to Tom Starr, the giant outlaw of half a century ago, and his daughter-in-law, the famous bandit queen, Belle Starr, is J. L. Vaughan of Ulan, who has lived in these parts 52 years. His name was inadvertently omitted.

John Lafayette Vaughan in his middle age.

John Lafayette Vaughan in the late 30s or early 40s. 

McAlester News-Capital – 15 Jun 1933 – Page 6

Today and Yesterday

By C. H. C. [Charles H. Cowles]

“Here you are, now make the best of it.” This is the way J. L. Vaughan of Ulan says he was turned loose in Indian Territory in 1881 at the age of 15. “I could be a good boy. I could steal. I could kill. I had no school; no education. Instead of trying to study mathematics and penmanship, I studied horsemanship and gunmanship. But I always managed to keep the good will of the good people. I was born in National park in the Ozark Mountains July 19, 1866. My father was a soldier four years in the Union army and my uncle, Capt. [Napier], also. After the Civil War, my uncle was killed from the brush by a mob while he was sheriff. My father was dead. I was brought here by my widowed mother and older brothers. I rode horseback quite a bit and I practiced shooting and got to be pretty good at it. I have killed many a deer, turkey, and squirrel with a six-shooter.

-----*-----

One time, when I was riding around in this thinly settled country, I came onto a dead Indian on the edge of a prairie. My horse was afraid and I was proud that I had a steed that could make fast time in going away from there. When I hit the Big San Bois bottoms at the north end of Cougar Mountain, near where Blaine is now, I heard the most terrible moaning and groaning any man ever listened to. It came from under some heavy underbrush and some large trees. That made me saddle a little faster. After I crossed the creek, I ran onto about 10 armed me, huddled together in the road. I did not know if they were going to do to me what they had done to the others or not. But I gamed up and rode right up to them and spoke as I passed. Some of them just grunted as I went by. A day or so later I heard they had killed a lot of horse thieves in there that day. I was told they killed 10 about two miles from Hoyt.

-----*-----

The Indians didn’t think they could have a good ball game without killing someone. I didn’t go to these games on that account. Just previous to one game, Sheriff Lucas had given his deputy a bat in the head during some trouble. It was a day or two before the game. He was still sore. He walked up to the sheriff and severed his jugular vein with a piece of hot lead. Sheriff Lucas leaped on his horse and the deputy jumped on his to follow the sheriff. But a half Choctaw and half negro shot the deputy off his horse with a Winchester. The half-breed jumped on a horse to leave when the son of the deputy, Nicholas Willards, picked up a gun and shot him down.

-----*-----

Near where Stigler now stands, there was a nine mile stretch in the ‘80’s on which a man named Sweden lived in the only house. Sweden claimed to be a deputy United States marshal. A man by the name of Willard married his niece and they were living here with Sweden and his wife. One day Willard and Sweden’s niece got into a quarrel. Mrs. Sweden went to the field saying she would send her husband, Louis, to settle the trouble. Willard procured Sweden’s rifle. Sweden was a powerful man and Willard knew he would be nothing in his hands. Sweden rushed into the yard. Willard stepped to the door and shot him through, just below the arms. I saw his body. Willard started to the friend where John Sweden, a son, was working, and gave him a chase. He shot at him but the young man got away. Then Willard hunted the woman. She knew what would happen and ran. He fired on her, shooting her through the back, the bullet coming out at the left breast. I saw the bodies of these people.

-----*-----

Jim Reed. Courtesy of Wikipedia. 

I remember well the outlaw, Jim Reed. He was not Belle Starr’s husband although many say he was. They just get confused. He was a fine marksman. He could hit a man’s hand with a six-shooter at 100 yards. He was always keeping a lookout for U. S. Marshal [Bass] Reeves. One day Jim Reed came to the Canadian Rive at Whitefield with a man named Spooney. He told Spooney he would not go to the store as there might be some laws there. Spooney heard a shot and looked back and saw Reed throw up his hands. Then he heard another shotgun crack and Reed crumpled to the ground. I saw him after he was killed. It was supposed Sam Starr shot him with a shotgun. At one time, [Bass] Reeves killed a cook and Judge Parker let him go on account of his great usefulness as a marshal. Reeves promised the judge he would go anywhere he wanted papers served. A story is told about Reeves and a posse being after a terrible man who was roaming among the Indians. These marshals gathered up posses and arrested bad characters and hauled them to Fort Smith. In this instance, [Bass] Reeves sneaked around after this awful bad fellow, suspecting he was asleep. And he was. He handcuffed him without firing a gun.

-----*-----

Bass Reeves. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

A couple Seminole Indians took [Bass] Reeves as a prisoner. They did not relieve him of his guns. They started to take him to a heavy bottom trail. [Bass] thought, ‘Now is the time.’ There was a big Indian ahead and a small one behind. [Bass] thought that was the last chance. He whipped out his six-shooter and shot the Indian behind and, in a split second, threw it on the Indian ahead and he went down. On one occasion, [Bass] Reeves, Tine Hughes, and Charles Barnhill and others, all United States officers, went out for a very bad Creek Indian. He killed everyone who attempted to arrest him. They established a camp close to his place. [Bass] told them he was going to [indecipherable] man and they all told him he would be shot. He unbuckled his six-shooter and laid it down and they were all saying: ‘Yes, we know what you’ll get.’ [Bass] went to the Indian’s house and called him out and looked into a double-barreled shotgun. ‘You would not shoot a man without arms, said [Bass], in his nicest way. ‘I am not after you. I want you to help me. I am after a man on your place.’ [Bass] kept getting closer despite warnings to keep back. All the time looking through his writs, he kept edging up. ‘Don’t come any closer’ was a warning which the Indian kept repeating. But [Bass] got up close just the same and he made a leap under the fun and caught the Indian. They scuffled for some time and [Bass] said afterward that he began to think he would be out-muscled and outwinded, but he finally overpowered him and handcuffed him and led him to his astonished officer.”

-----*-----

Mrs. [Vaughan] says she was happier in those old days than she is now. Although most everyone carried guns, they would hang them up like they do their hats nowadays. She is afraid of the automobiles today and says there is more drunkenness than there was then. She cannot forget the kindly spirit with which neighbors treated each other in the old days. They would pitch in and help those who suffered from storm or sickness and she spoke of what they called “log rollings” when the women would prepare a meal for the workers.

-----*-----

John and Florence Vaughan in the 1930s. 

Cowles’s interviews with the Vaughans end here. He does make an additional note on Jim Reed, stating that “he was not killed in Texas, as has been stated, but was drowned in the Poteau river at Page’s ferry, six miles east of Spiro in 1883, according to Dr. G. L. Hartshorne.

According to modern sources online, Reed was supposedly killed in Texas by a member of his own gang, but in 1874. John would have only been 8 years old and living in Arkansas in 1874. So either John was telling a tall tale or confusing individuals. Since Belle and Sam Starr apparently never legally married, it is plausible but unlikely that if Reed was killed a few years later than believed (but still earlier than Hartshorne’s report stating 1883), John could have been around for some of these events.

It’s more likely that John was stretching the truth or perhaps confusing Reed with another of Belle Starr’s lovers before she paired with Sam Starr; that list is said to include Cole Younger, who steadfastly denied this claim.

I really wish the second half of John's interview about Belle Starr, Judge Parker, and Edgar Watson had been published, but for whatever reason it never was. Still, having this biographical information on John in his own words is nothing short of incredible. I also think is insight into some of these events should be helpful to historians of early Oklahoma and its outlaws, especially Belle Starr. 

John Lafayette Vaughan: A Biography of An Oklahoma Pioneer

Originally written 13 Aug 2012

Updated 12 Feb 2020 and 27 Mar 2020

For generations in my family, it was a rumor that my great great grandfather, John Lafayette Vaughan, had some personal connections to and/or was a friend/associate of the infamous outlaw Belle Starr and her family. This bit of family lore was shared with me at a young age, and after asking my great aunt and one of her first cousins, I ended up with solid proof of this friendship/association, and after that, came into even more information.

Years ago, I met a cousin who had heard similar stories about John Vaughan being associated with Belle Starr, stories which were relayed by his grandmother, John Vaughan's daughter Lou Ona Vaughan White. But he was under the impression that certain factions of his large extended family (Lou had many children, and subsequently many grandchildren) did not believe this family legend, and thought Lou was just making it up. So I thought I would begin sharing the information I have in hopes that anyone else descended from John Lafayette Vaughan wondering about his connection to Belle Starr could find this and enjoy it as much as I have. I have since updated this information as-needed.

Originally, I had three pieces of evidence concerning John Vaughan's ties to Belle Starr: typed testimony from his daughter Lou Vaughan White, mentions of him in Glenn Shirley's Belle Starr & Her Times: The Literature, The Facts, and the Legends (1990), and a photocopy of a newspaper article published in the McAlester News-Capital titled "Death of Belle Starr Recalled", a piece by Baird Martin which was a re-telling of an article written by Charles H. Cowles some 35 years prior to the revision. Cowles had actually interviewed John Lafayette Vaughan about Belle Starr and her death. Unfortunately, my photocopy was undated, though I was able to figure out it was published about 1967-68, and Martin did not cite the date of publication for Cowles' original article, so short of sifting through every page of the news paper for two years I had no way to find the original full interview.

Fortunately, in January, 2020, a librarian at the McAlester Public Library named Christopher Elliott took the time to dig through recently-digitized issues of the McAlester News-Capital to find the original article for me. The digital version of the paper is only accessible on-site at the library, so I could not go through it myself from my residence in Michigan. But after playing with several terms in Martin's rehashed article, he located and sent me the original. I have published a full transcription of the full interview here: https://thesaltofamerica.blogspot.com/2020/03/john-lafayette-vaughan-and-belle-starr.html

Finally, a few years ago, a grandson of the aforementioned Lou Vaughan White found a tintype photo he had been looking for: a picture of John Lafayette Vaughan with Sam Starr, husband of Belle Starr. This was the strongest evidence yet of a connection between John and the Starrs-literal photographic proof. But it was still difficult to put the entire figurative picture of John and the Starr family into context without that interview, and now with all these things together, the evidence of their relationship speaks for itself.

All of this information, along with everything else I have collected on John from records and testimony from his grandchildren and other relatives by blood and marriage, has culminated in the biography of John Lafayette Vaughan which I will present here. I feel the information within it is complementary to the testimony he gives in his above-linked interview, and together they paint an interesting picture of a fascinating individual.

Biography of John Lafayette Vaughan

by Nathan Vaughan Marks

John Lafayette Vaughan was born July 19th, 1866 in Pope County, Arkansas. He was the son of Stephen Clinton Vaughan and Amanda Smith Napier. His father contracted chronic diarrhea during the Civil War, and it ailed him so badly that he was hardly able to work, and thus his family lived at near poverty-level. His grandfather, Archibald Hubbard Napier, was a well-known doctor (likely holistic doctor, rather than an MD) in the area and cared for Stephen until his death, at which time Stephen was cared for by a slew of other doctors, most notably a Henry Jones.

Amanda Smith Napier, mother of John, wife of Stephen, and later wife of Henry Jones. 

Stephen Clinton Vaughan, Missouri 8th Cavalry (USA)

John was born at a time of great strife in Pope County, Arkansas. A year prior to his birth, his uncle Captain Archibald Dodson Napier was named sheriff of Pope County at the end of the Civil War, and was subsequently murdered as the first victim of what became known as the Pope County Militia War, which essentially was a local guerrilla war fought between local Union loyalists and Southern sympathizers. The violence in the area became so intense that many families felt compelled to leave the area, including the Vaughans, who settled in Conway County, where his father died of his ailment in 1880. The next year, John and his mother left for Indian Territory, where John was largely left to his own devices, and spent time with Indians and area outlaws. His mother Amanda later became involved with and eventually married one of his father's previous doctors, Henry Jones.

Archibald Dodson Napier and his wife Mary Elizabeth Vaughan. Dodson was the brother of  John's mother Amanda and Mary was the sister of John's father Stephen. 

The information on John's early life is confirmed both by his own testimony and a brief write-up on the Vaughan family history by his daughter, Lou Vaughan White. "John Lafayett Vaughan  rode a horse into Oklahoma when he was 14 years old, he weighed 85 lbs. He lived with and around the Indians for 9 years, then he rad around with some outlaws. He rode with Belle Starr, he was sweet on her daughter, Pearl."  It is worth noting that she spelled Lafayett without an 'e' at the end as it is typically found. The family record kept by John's mother spells his name without the 'e' which may be why Lou opted to spell it that way. In nearly all other circumstances in John's life, Lafayette was spelled with an 'e' at the end.

John himself reported in a 1934 interview with the McAlester News-Capital that he was "turned loose" in Indian Territory in 1881 at the age of 15. “I could be a good boy. I could steal. I could kill. I had no school; no education. Instead of trying to study mathematics and penmanship, I studied horsemanship and gunmanship. But I always managed to keep the good will of the good people. I was born in National park in the Ozark Mountains July 19, 1866. My father was a soldier four years in the Union army and my uncle, Capt. [Napier], also. After the Civil War, my uncle was killed from the brush by a mob while he was sheriff. My father was dead. I was brought here by my widowed mother and older brothers. I rode horseback quite a bit and I practiced shooting and got to be pretty good at it. I have killed many a deer, turkey, and squirrel with a six-shooter."

This is John in his early-to-mid teens. This was probably taken about the time he arrived in Oklahoma. Courtesy of his granddaughter, Colleen Vaughan Allen.

John's associations with famed outlaws Tom Starr and Belle Starr are well-documented. He was reportedly friends with Tom's son and Belle's husband, Sam Starr, and heard the shot that killed him, and was present in the aftermath of Belle's death. From his 1934 interview: “I lived on the place of Martin Crowder, an aged Indian, 40 miles northwest of McAlester on the Canadian river five miles from Tom Starr’s home, and this aged man became very friendly with me and told me what Tom Starr had imparted to him. ... I lived there on the Crowder place and I heard the shot that killed Sam Starr. I was within a mile of the spot where he met death."

As it is in many families that descend from colorful characters, rumors and legends about John have been told for generations. Some have been debunked while others have been seemingly confirmed. One legend about John that has not been proven or disproved is that prior to his first recorded marriage, he had taken an Indian bride and had a child by her.

This is similar to an additional legend that he may be the mystery father of Pearl Starr's daughter, Flossie. In 1887, Belle sent her daughter Pearl away to have an illegitimate child she had been impregnated with, a girl named Flossie who was born in April of 1887. John would have been about 21 years old and still unmarried at this time, and he admits that Pearl was his date to a number of dances when he was a young man, so its not something that can be entirely ruled out, but also can't be proven. Per his 1934 interview: "I went to [Belle's] place lots of times and carried her and her daughter, Pearl, to dance. I carried Pearl to a good many."

Sam Starr, husband of Belle and son of Tom, on left. John L. Vaughan on right. Courtesy of Jerry White. 

Likewise, no record of this supposed Native child has ever been established. But the legend contends that in the 1980s, John's daughter Lou received a phone call from a woman claiming to be a long-lost half-sister by John's relationship with her Indian mother. The caller's name is not known today. Stoking the fires of this legend is a newspaper clipping saved by descendants of the Lou White family that some believe could be a clue to this mystery child. On 11 Sep 1988, a letter to the editor of the McAlester News-Capital included the following tidbit:  "My mother is approaching 90 years and certainly qualifies of at least respectful attention. Having been borned of an Indian mother and a red-headed, blue eyed father, who, by virtue of having been raised by the Indians bears a Cherokee roll number. Her papers claim she was born north and east of Scipio." 

Now John Vaughan certainly does not have a roll number, but he was red-headed, blue-eyed, and lived northeast of Scipio in Ulan 90 years before this letter's publication. He also resided with Indians as a teenager and young man. How many people in that vicinity could meet all that criteria? Not very many, but the letter-writer and his mother's origins remain a mystery. It was signed "Wakana Hanunwau". It is apparently and Indian or even Hawaiian name, but records for a person with this name have not been located, nor has any substantive evidence of a long-lost child of John Vaughan. Some legends are destined to remain so.

John in his early-to-mid 20's. This is likely what he looked like at the time of Belle Starr's death. Courtesy of Colleen Vaughan Allen.

John married Sarah Ann "Eva" McCarty on July 9th, 1892 near Scipio; she bore him two children, Mattie Mae in 1892 and William Riley in  1895. (My research concerning her mysterious parentage can be found here: http://thesaltofamerica.blogspot.com/2017/08/using-dna-to-solve-family-mystery-sarah.html.) When Eva went into labor with their third child, John left to get help, and returned to find her and the newborn dead. By this time, most of his family had moved to Oklahoma as well; his brother Stephen died at Whitefield in 1885 and his mother Amanda near Thurman in 1891, and his brother Archibald settled nearby him in the Scipio area while his brother Thomas settled in McIntosh County.

Grave of Stephen Barnabas Vaughan, brother of John, at Whitefield Cemetery. Died 1885. 

It was while visiting his brother Thomas that he met his brother's sister-in-law, Leona Waller. "[John] and Leona met and fell in love over the breakfast table the first day Leona was in [Oklahoma]. Leona was engaged to a boy named Wells in Arkansas. [John] and Leona ran away to get married, they swam the Canadian River on horseback, they were married at Hullowe, near Scipio [Note: There was a town named Hullowe in Pittsburg County, but they were actually married in Indianola, however, the minister who married them was named Hugh Low, which is probably what led to the confusion]." (Source: Family History by Lou Vaughan White) They were married on February 23rd, 1898.

Further rumors about John revolved around his association with various outlaw gangs, supposedly including the Dalton gang. No one was sure exactly what the extent of his relationship with these groups might have been. Some have been adamant that he never participated in illegal activities, while others are certain that he did. There are several John Vaughans who were arrested and tried (and some sent to jail) in Fort Smith, Arkansas from 1880 to 1900 for various illegal activities in Indian Territory and northwestern Arkansas, but it has not been confirmed whether any of these John Vaughans were John Lafayette Vaughan or not. However, even beyond his own assertions of his connections to Belle Starr and her crowd, there is documentation of his presence in the aftermath of her death.

In 1990, Glenn Shirley and the University of Oklahoma Press published Belle Starr & Her Times: The Literature, The Facts, and the Legends. Much of the information concerning Belle Starr's death stemmed from witness accounts of various neighbors of Starr, and residents of the surrounding area where she was murdered. John, who went by "Fayette" or "Fate" as a shortening of his middle name Lafayette, was mentioned by name in the testimonies of three individuals.

p. 237: Alice (Mrs. Joseph) Tate, who lived a mile from the ambush scene and a half mile from Edgar Watson, heard two guns [shots] in the evening about half an hour by sun. "My husband & Billy England were standing out back of house talking when guns fired. Ben Statham came to our house about dark & told us, & me & my husband & Fayette Vaughn & Billy England went down from our house."

p. 237-238: Ray England, who lived two miles from the White place and a half a mile from Watson, was well acquainted with Belle but he had not seen her for a month until "I seen her dead at Alf White's. Fayette Vaughn on the 3rd day of February 1889 at after dark came to my house to let me know she had been killed and wanted the neighbors to go & take care of her.."

p. 239: Turner England also received news of the killing Monday morning: "Fayette Vaughn brought me word...I went over there...seen blood in road, seen tracks of man I thought done shooting..."

These short excerpts do not give a lot of information as to the extent of Vaughan's relationship to Starr, but they still help flesh out his involvement in the scenes after her death and corroborate the statements in his interview to an extent, though it should be noted that these neighbors claim the shooting occurred in the early evening, while Vaughan said it took place at 2:00 in the afternoon.

John divulged several interesting details about what led to Belle's death and his involvement in the aftermath of it in his 1934 interview. He reported that Belle's son got mixed up into some horse-stealing because of a neighbor by the man of Edgar Watson. Belle threatened to have Watson prosecuted for getting her son into trouble, and he vowed to kill her. Though historical authorities today contend that Belle Starr's killer is unknown and unproven, John insists that it was Watson. After her killing, he reports that he and some other associates investigated the scene of the crime themselves and he shared his conclusions.

"There was brush along the fence for quite a ways and there was an open place in the rail fence. Where the brush stopped there was a small walnut tree on the inside of the fence. That is where Watson hid. He let her pass him and then fired on her. I could see the place where she was shot as the horse stove his feet into the ground there. Three buckshot ranged from her shoulder to her heart. She stuck to the horse about 30 or 40 feet. Then there were the tracks. I could see where he had jumped the fence. She rode sideways all the time. I never saw her without a nice dress. She fell on her right shoulder and arm. There were the tracks where he ran up and shot her in the side of the face with a load of fine shot. She was not dead then, for she had raised her hand to protect her face. He shot the ring from her left ear and we never could find it.

We sat up with the body that night. In the morning, when it was good and light, I looked over the ground. There was shotgun paper all over the tracks of the horse where they stove in."

John also reported being directly involved in Belle's burial proceedings and present at her funeral: "Another man and I dug the grave, three feet, and then others came and helped finish it. She was buried in a nice wooden coffin and a walnut box to set it in. The lumber was taken from the house in which I lived. Edgar Watson had the nerve to attend the funeral and help throw dirt on the coffin. He went in the house and came out with a coat and I thought he had an ashen color to his face."

The Starrs were not the only people on society's fringes with whom John is purported to have been rubbing elbows. Several years ago John's granddaughter Dale Vaughan Sitter was working as a nurse in McAlester when she got to talking with a patient. When he found out she was a Vaughan from the Ulan area, he reported remembering her grandfather. He said that John acquired some of his land from an Indian outlaw named "Natchabull". Further research indicated the man was referring to Allen Narchubby, who was more of an extremist than an outlaw.

Allan Archibald AKA Allen Narchubby was a member of an extremist Choctaw faction called Snake Indians. Per Dr. Kenny Brown, "The Snake Indians were traditionalists who were against land allotments. Allen Archibald was a traditionalist Choctaw who had joined the much-noted Snake Indian movement, refused to take allotment, came under arrest for his activities, and died in jail after suffering the humiliation of having his hair shorn." The story from the aforementioned stranger to Dale Vaughan was that John was present when the authorities came to take him to jail and supposedly signed paperwork giving the rights to his allotment to him, but since Archibald refused to take allotment, the story did not make very much sense.

Documentation provided by Dr. Brown, however, proves that John rented land (most likely farmland) from Allen Archibald, and then from his son Smedlow after Allen's death even though he was just a young boy; Dr. Brown posits that since Allen's wife was Creek on Choctaw land, John could not rent from her. As a white man, John could not own land at this time and had to rent from a Native. A possible translation of the story from the stranger combined with the known facts could be that Allen told John he could buy his land from him, and perhaps John did buy the land once white men were able to purchase Indian land in the Indian Territory. Dr. Brown cites Choctaw Nation Records, Bound Volume #425, Tobucksy County Permits and Licenses, 1899-1905 for the four images of permits between John L. Vaughan and the Archibald men over a four year period.

Dr. Brown reports that once Archibald was arrested and later perished, he "left behind two Muskogee Creek widows who came from the nearby Creek Nation. They also soon died, leaving several parent-less children who were eventually rounded up and sent to an orphanage." Before Archibald's children were rounded up, the federal government sent an Indian Agent to the area where John was living to investigate reports of Archibald's children running wild without care or supervision: Josanna, age 15, Smedlow, age 10-11, twins Cain and Abel, age 8, and a girl called "Etta", "Adda", or "Belle", about age 4. All but the youngest girl were Archibald's children; "Etta" was born after Archibald's death in 1898, reportedly an illegitimate child of Archibald's widow and an unknown white man. The children were occasionally looked after by an older sister, Elsie, age 17, but she came and went and often left them alone for long periods.

Children of Allen Archibald. Cain, Abel, Etta, Smedlow. Taken at The Murrow Indian Orphan’s Home. Courtesy of The Baptist Home Mission Monthly, Volumes 30-31 via Google Books. 

Benjamin Mossman, Esq., came from Muskogee in May 1908 to Indianola. A Mr. Herstein had reported his concerns over the unsupervised children, and Herstein took Mossman to "J. D. Vayghan", whose name he later spells as Vaughan. There were no other Vaughans near Indianola at this time, and Dr. Brown believes Mossman was referring to J. L. Vaughan. Mossman reported that Vaughan "has lived in that part for fifteen years and speaks both Choctaw and Creek. He took us, by boat, two miles up a river or creek then two miles on foot along trails and through forest to a one roomed log hoval [sic] where what remains of the Allen Archibald family exist."

Mossman continued: "The roof is open with holes and the chinks between the logs are mostly gaping. The floor is of earth. There are no beds, but piles of some sort of rag-looking stuff and parts of blankets on the ground serve as such. ... There is no one to care for this little brood unless Elsie can be credited with that office. She is reported to have "gone wrong" and frequently absents herself for days or weeks." Archibald had married a woman unable to have children, so he married her sister as well who bore him his children. Both died in the years following his death and no one took responsibility for the children until Mr. Mossman intervened at this time.

Mossman posited that perhaps Judge George W. Choate, who lived nearby, might accept guardianship of the children. Further, he reported: "Mr. Vaughan stated to me that he would willingly adopt Etta if she were given him by the courts." But neither of these scenarios played out, and all the children were sent to an orphanage for Indian children.

John in his late-20's-to-early-30's. Courtesy of Colleen Vaughan Allen.

John and his second wife Leona went on to be parents of seven children, six of whom lived to adulthood. Their first, Early Coatner Vaughan, died in 1907 at the age of 8, and was buried next to John's first wife Eva, their newborn baby, and John's brother Archibald in Choate Prairie Cemetery near Ulan. The others were, in order: Sampson Lafayette, Lou Ona, John Dodson, Charles Teddy, Nicey Jewell, and Dewey Miles. After giving birth to Nicey in 1909, Leona became very ill; it took her years to recover. When she finally had, she became pregnant with Dewey. Giving birth to Dewey nearly killed her; she apparently actually died momentarily after his birth before being resuscitated.

Leona Waller Vaughan with Sampson on her lap and Early Coatner to her side. Only known photo of Coatner, who died at age 8. 

John and his family, circa 1909. John is in the middle next to his wife, Leona Aden Waller. In the back are his children from his first marriage, Mattie Mae and William Riley "Bill" Vaughan. To his right are his sons Sampson Lafayette and John Dodson Vaughan. To his left is his daughter Lou Ona Vaughan, and on Leona's lap is his son Charles Teddy Vaughan.

Leona was never the same after that. She was able to nurse Dewey, but was unable to hold him during, so Lou would. She was able to cook for the family, but unable to do any lifting or major housework. In 1919, she was diagnosed with Pellagra, a devastating disease most common in 3rd world countries, typically caused by a vitamin deficiency; it can lead to a plethora of serious side effects, including but not limited to skin lesions, insomnia, weakness, sensitivity to sunlight, mental confusion, and eventually dementia. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellagra). The doctors decided to try and cure her by cleansing her system with vials of rattlesnake venom. Her screams of agony proving too much to bear, John left the house mid-treatment to go down to the Scipio Creek to pray. When he returned, he found she had died on the second-to-last vial of venom with Lou by her side.

Another hardship befell the Vaughan family not long before Leona's death. John's oldest son, Bill, had married and had John's first grandchild, a little girl named Essie. John was reportedly very taken with the little baby. But she died, at apparently less than a year in age, and was buried out at Choate Prairie where John's first wife, two children, and brother also lie. His granddaughter Sharon White recalls being told that after Essie's death, John vowed not to allow himself to get too attached or close with any other grandchildren because the loss had effected him so deeply he could not bear another one.

Always looked to by his family, John persevered and led them through these hardships. He re-married in 1920 to Florence Bell Lytle, and continued to work on the farm, which he purchased with pension money he received for his father's Civil War service. He drew that pension from the time he was 14 until he was 21, and used the money to purchase his home near Ulan, Oklahoma; a small portion of the oil rights that land garnered remains in the Vaughan family to this day. He spent much time with his grandchildren, who all viewed him with awe and admiration.

Around the same time or shortly after his marriage to Florence, John was named one of two judges in Scipio Township. He presided over the Union Prairie precinct within the township, which later became Ulan. He would have heard only minor local cases. He held court in the Union Prairie/Ulan schoolhouse. His court clerks were J. P. Grantham and W. T. Rye.

Ulan/Union Prairie School, 1926. 

In addition to his own children and grandchildren, John took on the responsibility of raising step-children and other children who did not belong to him. When they married in 1920, Florence brought to John's home a 17-year old son, Raymond, 14-year old daughter Vertie, 11-year old daughter Clara, and 35-year old Maude, who was disabled. He helped care for Maude until her passing in 1932, and also regularly took in Florence's children and grandchildren when the need arose. In addition, school census records show that John was the guardian of Zular Westmoreland in 1926-1927. Zular was a son of Fannie Waller, a deceased sister of John's deceased wife, Leona. So even though he shared no blood with Zular, he took him in and had him in school for at least two years.

John Lafayette Vaughan circa 1920 with a jar of moonshine.

John's inclination to take in both Zular Westmoreland, and before that little Etta Archibald, in addition to his children and step-children is a testament to his nature. There have been conflicting reports in the family about John Vaughan's personality and character. His granddaughter Glenda reported that she was told John was a hard, mean, cruel man. Other grandchildren, including those who met him as children, reported him to be kind, doting, and of a cheerful disposition. As with anyone, perceptions of him surely varied based on the eye of the beholder, but most parties describe John as a compassionate, family-oriented man. His willingness to take in children that do not belong to him seemingly supports that illustration of the man.

John Lafayette Vaughan circa 1930. Note his earrings and the pistol strapped to his side, for which he well-known among his grandchildren.

The aforementioned Kenny Brown was the son of Leona Dickens Brown, a neighbor of the Vaughans who grew up in their area. Late in life she wrote a memoir about her childhood home and the people she knew, and she wrote of John Vaughan:

"There was another family who lived on Scipio Creek, northwest of Ulan. Their name was Vaughan. Where Mr. Lafayette Vaughan came from I never heard, but he was a good friend of Grandpa Dickens and my father. He was red headed, had a handle bar mustache, wore gold rings in his ears, a red bandanna handkerchief around his neck, and a big black stand up crown black hat."

At one time he said he rode with Belle Starr and her gang. Anyway, he knew some of them. He always said that he heard the shot that killed Belle Starr. My father always said that Mr. Vaughan (they called him Fayette) was superstitious. He always believed in stories about black cats and whipperwills singing or calling close to the house.

Mr. Vaughan had a good house or home, and we never knew how he managed to have a good place, land, and buildings. I remember he had a big pond and kept ducks. He had a big garden spot and an orchard, also a big yard with big trees. He usually celebrated his birthday by having a big crowd around, drinking and playing marbles, then a dance at night.

He had been married three times; his first and second wives died. By his first wife he had two children, a son, Bill, and a daughter, Mattie. ... My parents knew the second Mrs. Vaughan, and they liked her a lot. She and Mr. Vaughan had several kids--Sampson, Lou, Charlie, Nicie, and Dewey. We called Dewey "Cutter." Then after the second Mrs. Vaughan died, he married a widow that he had known for a long time. She lived at Blocker, and she had several kids. Her name was Autrey. 

John L. Vaughan and his third wife, Florence, with their Model T Ford. 

... The third Mrs. Vaughan was a short and heavy woman. Mr. Vaughan had a Model T Ford. He and Cutter would ride in the front seat, and she would ride in the back. I think he had the first car in the country around Ulan. People traveling in wagons would have to get a way out to the side of the road whenever they met Mr. Vaughan, for the teams to the wagons would get frightened and run away."

Lou Vaughan, John L. Vaughan, and Ola Autrey. 

In 1937, his son John Dodson Vaughan came down with pneumonia, and died at his home, leaving behind a widow and three children. His death proved too much to bear for John. He was always the prototypical male role-model: strong and invincible, feared and admired; devout, stern, fair, and kind. He was not a man easily shaken. But after having buried two wives and two children on top of all the other losses he had suffered throughout his lifetime, the loss of his beloved son John Dodson Vaughan finally broke him. He had to be carried out of the funeral.

This is a picture of John Lafayette's son, John Dodson Vaughan. This picture is noteworthy because the 30/30 Winchester rifle John is holding belonged to his father, as did the 1897 Model Winchester Shotgun leaning up against the house to the left of the dog. When John Lafayette died in 1944, his pistol was passed down to his grandson J.L. White, the 30/30 to his son-in-law Tony White, and his shotgun to his son Sampson Vaughan. 

After his son died, John saw to it that his fatherless grandchildren were well-taken care of. They would often walk to his farm to hear him to tell his stories for hours, some of which were so scary that Dewey would have to walk them home afterword. John's daughter Colleen had vivid memories of him and his kindness, including one night when they stayed at his home during a thunderstorm, and John comforted her when she was afraid of the lightning. He was a soft-spoken man, but one whose presence filled any room he was in, and a man who was immeasurably cherished by his family. He died September 20th, 1944 and was buried next to Leona in Ulan Cemetery.

McAlester News-Capital - 21 Sep 1944 - Page 2

J. L. Vaughan, of Ulan, passed away last night after a short illness. He had resided in this vicinity for the past 50 years.

Mr. Vaughan was born July 19, 1866, in Arkansas.

He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Florence Vaughan, three daughters and four sons. These are Mrs. Mattie Smith of McAlester, Mrs. Lou White, Detroit, Mich., Mrs. Nicie [Ross], Bakersfield, Calif., Willie Vaughan, Wewoka, S. L. Vaughan, McAlester, Charlie Vaughan and Dewey Vaughan, both of Ulan. There are also several grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements, not yet complete, will be announced later by Humphreys who have charge. 

Left to right: Charles Teddy Vaughan, Nicey Jewell Vaughan, John Lafayette Vaughan, Dewey Miles Vaughan, Lou Ona Vaughan, and Sampson Lafayette Vaughan. Taken circa 1940.

John Lafayette Vaughan in the late-1930's-to-early-1940's.

This is the Colt .45 pistol that belonged to John Lafayette Vaughan. He kept it at his side always, though none knew why with certainty. Most believe he was worried someone might come for him one day either because of something he knew or something he'd done, and he would have had to take care of them.

John Vaughan family in front of their home near Ulan, year unknown. John to the right. 

Gathering of Vaughan and Kelton families, late 1920s/early 1930s. John left and to the middle with his famous hat and mustache. 

John second from the left with various children and in-laws, likely in the mid-to-late 1930s. 

John Vaughan family in front of their home, year unknown. John in middle with rifle. Courtesy of Jerry White.